Friday, June 21, 2013

Going Away/Half Birthday Party for Rebekah

My friend, Rebekah, and I love to throw parties for each other, and since she's moving to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean next month, I only had one more chance to do one for her! I decided to do a beach theme and combine her "Going Away" with her Half Birthday (on the day) =)
It was so much fun!

The weather had me stressed out all day because I Really wanted to have the party on the deck and it kept raining on and off... but it stopped just in time to set up and it was a gorgeous evening!

Table all set

I used an old board I found and loaded it up with sand, shells and candles

To tie in the brown and turquoise, I used brown paper and drizzled it with paint to overlay the tablecloth

The table waiting for food

Fun accents

Love these lanterns

Rebekah's photo book wrapped up with a favorite quote of mine

Since it's hot out, I wanted all the food to be cold and fresh and bright (this also made it easy for me to prepare a lot of things ahead of time and not be sweating over a hot stove! I also tried out two brand new recipes and really liked them!

Food spread

This was one of the new ones, I'm always glad to find new quinoa recipes!

(It had lots of veggies in it and a nice tangy orange basil dressing)

This was new too - the lime in the marinade added the perfect zing

This is an old favorite, great by itself or on chips!

(These next two are self explanatory, but I just got carried away with the labels) =)

Homemade guacamole (I Love it when the avocados are perfectly ripe!)

My old standby, homemade hummus

Candles lit...

I loved using the china and glassware passed down from my mom! So pretty!

(It got lots of compliments)

Ladies in attendance:

Melissa and Nathalie

Abby and Terri's friend, Genevieve

Rebekah and I

Genevieve and Terri

Oops! Totally had anticipated that these little candles would burn down so quickly!

(I'm glad the paper was on top of the tablecloth!)

Bubbly in the candlelight

Dessert

(This was the first time I had made mini pavlovas, and it was so fun!)

Yum

Candles in the dark, begging to be photographed =)

Signs of a good time

I just loved how the lemons and limes in the water pitcher looked in the candlelight =)

It was a perfect evening with good friends, good food, and blissfully unhurried conversation into the candlelit night. We love you and will miss you terribly, Rebekah!

Our little family

Welcome to our blog!

Thank you for reading, whether you know me/us from Ontario, Michigan, Florida, Kansas, or you found us totally randomly or through another blog and just decided to check us out!

If you're looking for deep, thought provoking reading, you've come to the wrong place. If, however, you want to keep up on the lives of the five of us, and you like lots of pictures... this is the right stop! =)